This invention relates in general to the field of management of computer networks, and more particularly to a system and method for remote management of private networks having duplicate network addresses.
The Internet is a worldwide network interconnecting computers around the globe. In order to be connected to the Internet, every computer must have a unique address so that communications and data can be transferred to a specific device. In computer networks, a computer is also known as a node. Nodes can be any device which transmits or receives data or instructions across the computer network. Since every computer, or node, within a computer network must have a unique address, the organizers of the Internet developed an addressing scheme referred to as Internet Protocol (IP) addressing. An Internet Protocol address is 32 bits wide and is written as w.x.y.z. Each letter w, x, y, and z, represents eight bits of the address and has a range of 0 to 255. Connections to the Internet have grown at an incredible rate such that available IP addresses are quickly running out.
Computer networks which are attached to the Internet are referred to as xe2x80x9cpublicxe2x80x9d networks, and they must have a globally unique IP address which is registered with an organization responsible for allocating available IP addresses. A computer network which will not be connected to the Internet and is intended only for the internal use of the network owner is referred to as a xe2x80x9cprivatexe2x80x9d network. A private network must maintain unique network addresses within its own network. However, private networks are not concerned with network addresses outside of the private network. With the increased popularity of Internet Protocol for computer networks, many private networks have adopted the IP address scheme to assign addresses to their network nodes.
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority has reserved the following three blocks of the IP address space for private networks:
10.0.0.0-10.255.255.255
172.16.0.0-172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0-192.168.255.255
These reserved blocks of IP address space will not be used by any node connected to a public network. The purpose for reserving blocks of the IP address space is so that private networks can use the IP address scheme without having to register their IP address space. In addition, the reservation of IP address space for private networks avoids the use of public IP address space for networks which will not be connected to the Internet. By using the reserved IP address space, addresses within the private network will only be unique within that network.
When a private network elects to use the IP addressing scheme, it must choose a block of addresses for its network. Many private networks have chosen a beginning network address equal to one of the low blocks of IP address space such as 10.1.0.0. Thus, many private networks have duplicate network addresses among or between them.
With the increase in the number of computer networks throughout the business and corporate world, many businesses have realized that the management of information technology infrastructure can be a difficult and time consuming task. These companies are electing to contract with a third party network management company to provide private network management services. When a private network management company begins to manage several private networks, it is probable that two or more of the managed private networks may utilize duplicate IP address space. Thus, devices, or nodes, within the managed private network do not necessarily have a unique network address. Duplicate network addresses make it difficult to uniquely identify the source of an error message. Operators responding to error messages must first determine from which of several networks having duplicate network addresses the error came. This increases the time necessary to identify and correct network errors occurring in managed networks.
One solution to the problem of duplicate network addresses is to renumber the duplicate IP address space so that unique IP addresses are obtained. However, this can be expensive, time consuming, and disruptive to the private network owner. Another solution to the problem of duplicate network addresses is to maintain a separate management system for each managed private network having a duplicate IP address space. This results in many computer terminals and duplicative amounts of equipment. This has proved unworkable as the number of managed private networks having duplicate address space has grown.
Due to the aforementioned problems, current methods of remotely managing private networks having duplicate network addresses require excessive equipment, infrastructure, and staff in order to ensure that an error can be uniquely identified as originating in a specific managed private network. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a technique to manage multiple, private networks with duplicate network addresses without excessive amounts of equipment.
From the foregoing, it may be appreciated that a need has arisen for an improved system and method for remote management of private networks having duplicate network addresses. In accordance with the present invention, a system and method for remote management of private networks having duplicate network addresses are provided which substantially eliminate or reduce disadvantages and problems associated with conventional techniques for maintaining private networks with duplicate network addresses.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a level one manager linked to a plurality of managed customer networks. The level one manager monitors the managed customer networks and detects errors which may occur in the managed customer networks. Upon detecting an error, the level one manager generates an error notice which contains a unique identifier for the device which experienced the error. The error notice is sent to a level two manager which routes the error notice to an appropriate operator console.
The present invention provides various technical advantages over current systems and methods of handling duplicate network addresses within managed private networks. For example, one technical advantage is to eliminate the need for separate management systems for managed private networks with duplicate network addresses. In addition, another technical advantage is little disruption to the private network as compared to techniques that renumber the private network in order to obtain unique network addresses. Another advantage is to reduce the time needed to identify a problem and to reduce the time needed to restore service at the managed customer network experiencing a problem. Other examples may be readily ascertainable by those skilled in the art from the following figures, description, and claims.